Field of the Disclosure
Embodiments disclosed herein relate to the field of computer software. More specifically, embodiments disclosed herein relate to computer software which provides an interactive environment that responds to emergent group activities.
Description of the Related Art
A virtual world is a simulated interactive environment in which users may interact with virtual objects and locations of the virtual world. Each user may control a respective avatar through which the user may interact with other users' avatars in the virtual world. An avatar generally provides a graphical representation of an individual within the virtual world environment. Avatars are usually presented to other users as two or three-dimensional graphical representations that resembles a human individual. Frequently, virtual worlds allow multiple users to enter the virtual environment and interact with one another. Virtual worlds are said to provide an immersive environment, as they typically appear similar to the real world and objects tend to follow rules related to gravity, topography, locomotion, physics and kinematics. Of course, virtual worlds can suspend or alter these rules as well as provide other imaginative or fanciful environments. Users typically communicate with one another through their avatars using text messages sent between avatars, real-time voice communication, gestures displayed by avatars, symbols visible in the virtual world, and the like.
Some virtual worlds are described as being persistent. A persistent world provides an immersive environment (e.g., a fantasy setting used as a setting for a role-playing game, or a virtual world complete with land, buildings, towns, and economies) that is generally always available and where events continue to occur regardless of the presence of a given avatar. Thus, unlike more conventional online games or multi-user environments, the virtual world continues to exist and plots and events continue to unfold as users enter (and exit) the virtual world. Virtual environments are presented as images on a display screen and some virtual environment may allow users to record events that occur within the virtual environment.
In interactive environments and massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, players like to engage in emergent, group based open form role playing activities, such as a flash mob. These activities may be very impromptu, and may take place in different locations at random times. Some are coordinated in-world by the players using their friends list to set a time and place. This open style of game play provides a very rich layer of activities in virtual worlds in addition to helping developers reduce the amount of content they need to create in order to keep the virtual world engaging. However, since these activities are player initiated, the environments they take place in do not respond to these activities, and therefore cannot do anything to support or encourage these types of activities.